Who Isn't Crazy?
by kaoslord1982
Summary: The battle between Teresa and Priscilla has a pair of extra observers. Kind of. Also, all of the characters have exibited at some point, less than rational behaviors. But, hey, it's that kind of world.
1. Chapter 1

**Who Isn't Crazy?**

Ilena raced across the rocky and boulder strewn ground with Noel and Sophia at her back. Her long pale hair streamed back with her short cape, exposing her sharply pointed ears as she sought out the feeling of clashing yoki powers.

She and her three companions had been sent to kill the rogue warrior, Teresa of the Faint Smile. Before going rogue, Teresa had been ranked as the Organization's number one, so it was deemed appropriate to send numbers two through five to dispose of her. Surely their combined power would be enough to overcome her.

So they had believed, but Ilena's recent experience proved how painfully wrong they'd been. When they confronted her in the nearby town, Teresa handily defeated all four of them. Simultaneously. She didn't even need to exert her yoki as she disabled them each in turn. So great was her superiority she refrained from killing them, saying that they could attack her as often as they liked. They had no chance of defeating her.

Well, that wasn't entirely true. Priscilla, the rookie who had supplanted Ilena herself as number two, did have the power and potential to someday surpass Teresa. What she currently lacked was the experience. Teresa recognized this and nearly took Priscilla's head to prevent it from happening, but then surprised both Ilena and herself by sparing the young warrior and departing with the girl who had indirectly caused her to go rogue.

Ilena and her contemporaries were grateful to emerge with their lives, free to recover and fulfill their mission another day. Priscilla however, showed her youth by going berserk in the face of defeat at Teresa's hands and her own terror. She couldn't conceive of losing to a woman she regarded as nothing but a murderer, so she raised her yoki and charged after her.

Ilena, Noel, and Sophia ran to try to stop Priscilla before it was too late. In her current berserk state the best that she could hope for would be a quick death at Teresa's hands. It was frighteningly likely that in her rage and inexperience she would instead draw out too much of her yoki, surpassing her limit. If that happened she would become an Awakened Being, a monster, and her comrades would have to kill her themselves before she began feeding on human entrails.

They were close enough now that Ilena didn't have to try to sense yoki. She could hear the sound of swords clashing with deafening force. They slowed to a stop as they approached the rise the furious sounds of battle were coming from. It was so intense that they could actually feel impact shockwaves in the air.

"These yoki, they're...!" Noel started to say before breaking off, at a loss for words.

"I know what you mean," Sophia told her. "Those two are like monsters! What the hell can we possibly do against them?"

"Both of them are stronger than I imagined possible," Ilena admitted.

_But one is far stronger than the other_, she concluded to herself.

As they finally crested the rise Ilena saw two figures locked in combat, both wearing the uniform of the Organization's half bred warriors. That is, a snug white cloth body suit with plain metal paldrons, a short armored skirt, a waist length cape, and armored boots. Each wielded the blade of a warrior of the Organization, an enormous two handed sword called a claymore. These similarities aside, the two fighters couldn't have been more different.

Teresa fought with absolute composure, her flowing hair unmussed, and her appearance nearly immaculate. The only injury she had was a shallow cut over her right eye that had already stopped bleeding. Judging by the fact that only her eyes had changed color she was drawing on just ten percent of her yoki.

Priscilla's clothing, on the other hand, was torn and dirtied and her boyishly short hair was wild. She seemed to be uninjured, but judging by her glaring golden eyes, fanged mouth, and grotesquely malformed and muscular appearance she was drawing more than seventy percent of her yoki. Her enraged attacks were savagely powerful and terrifyingly fast, but seemed to pose no challenge for the rogue number one.

"Is that Priscilla? Are we too late?" Noel asked, aghast.

"She could still revert if we stopped her now," Ilena told her. The point of no return was eighty percent after all. "But I don't see how we could hope to do that now," she concluded.

A considerable distance away from the fight Ilena saw the girl Teresa was traveling with fearfully watching from the shelter of one of the the innumerable boulders scattered around the area. Her presence was only to be expected. What was surprising was the fact that there were two more observers to the battle. She would have expected any bystanders to have fled long since.

One of them was simply the largest human Ilena had ever seen. He was dark haired and beardless, as well as being tall and enormously muscular. His arms were crossed casually under a grey cloak and he bore a sword slung over his shoulder of similar size to, though of slightly different design than a claymore.

The woman next to him was about the same size as Ilena. The fit of her dark leathers was somehow reminiscent of a warrior's uniform and she bore a sword over her shoulder as well. Her pale hair was cut to chin length, her face was expressionless, and it was with some surprise that Ilena realized she didn't just resemble a warrior. Her silver eyes and the faint feel of yoki coming from her meant that she was one.

The strange warrior was obviously suppressing her yoma power, making it harder to detect. Given the gargantuan amounts of yoki the battling pair were putting out it was understandable to Ilena that she hadn't at first recognized what the other woman was. Focusing on her for a moment Ilena found something eerily familiar about her yoki aura, despite the fact she was certain she had never met her before.

There was also a discontinuity in the aura, telling Ilena that one of the woman's arms didn't belong to her. The aura it put off was also maddeningly familiar. It was Sophia who clarified the feeling for her.

"Ilena, if I didn't know better, I'd swear that warrior over there has your right arm."

The strange warrior turned and flicked her silver eyed gaze over Ilena and her companions before obviously dismissing them for the moment to watch the fight again.

Ilena briefly observed the fight again before concluding regretfully that if they tried to jump in and stop Priscilla they'd just get themselves killed and accomplish nothing. She edged her group towards the two strangers, while keeping an eye on the battle in case it shifted in their direction.

As they got closer she could hear the big human talking.

"...no offense meant - I don't think I've ever met a warrior of the Organization who was what most people would call sane. Helen comes closest I think. At least she has a sense of fun." He spoke with a slightly absent tone and kept his eyes on the battle in front of him.

"Her idea of a friendly hello is to attack me with her sword," the warrior responded with no real heat in her voice. She likewise kept her eyes on the battle.

"Only if you haven't seen each other in a while. And it isn't like she's serious about it."

He hurriedly justified himself, "Besides, I said she came closest to being sane, not that she actually was."

"Just because she's smiling when she attacks me doesn't mean she isn't serious. Galatea is much more reasonable."

"Galatea is much more _even tempered_ than Helen," the man said with emphasis. "I don't call anyone who cuts out her own eyes as a disguise sane. Granted it was a really good disguise..." He trailed off as Pricilla launched a particularly vicious attack at Teresa only to have it effortlessly countered.

"Yuma then. Perfectly sane and even tempered," the unfamiliar warrior suggested tonelessly.

"She throws her sword at Awakened Beings. That is her actual combat specialty. Throwing your only weapon away when you're facing an Awakened Being doesn't strike me as being terribly sane. Anyway, I notice you haven't put your own name forward for sanest warrior?" he inquired with a thread of amusement in his voice.

Ilena recognized none of the warriors they had mentioned.

"You know me too well," admitted the warrior with the slightest of smiles on her face.

"You did attack one of the Creatures of the Abyss while you were ranked number 47. Repeatedly," the man pointed out.

"You don't have any room to criticize me Raki."

"Hey, I never attacked a Creature of the Abyss. I just took sword lessons form one. And it's not like I knew what he was at first," Raki said defensively.

"That's not what I was talking about," the warrior commented. "Although that was also insane." As she spoke she seemed to relax slightly from a tension Ilena hadn't been aware was present in her.

"What was I supposed to do? Tell her to go away? Anyway, she stopped eating people for the entire time she was with me. She hardly gave anyone so much as a nasty look, and we were together for a while." Ilena realized that this Raki human's intention for the conversation was to distract the so-far nameless warrior. Her apparent blankness was a mask over powerful emotions of some kind.

"For seven years. With an Awakened Being stronger than the Creatures of the Abyss. Knowing that it was only a matter of time."

"Yes, but in the mean time she was a great spotter. I couldn't have killed nearly so many yoma without her to point them out." He waved that aside for the moment. "Anyway, my point was that we shouldn't judge this girl too harshly. All warriors are at least a little bit crazy."

Priscilla's enraged attack had failed yet again. She lay half collapsed and panting, her body horribly distorted by the excessive amount of yoma power she'd drawn. She was saying something to Teresa, but due to the distance and the speech of the two strangers, Ilena couldn't really make out what it was. Something about her Daddy and entrails.

Most likely it was the story of why Priscilla became a half bred warrior. Eviscerated family members tended to be common in such stories.

"_My_ point is that I know insanity when I see it. Priscilla is insane."

With a shriek Priscilla drew on still more of her yoma power, swelling her body so much that her uniform burst open in the back under the pressure.

"Not compared to Ophelia. She still deserves a chance. Besides, think how much easier things will be if you can get her on our side."

Whatever the strangers might have thought, Ilena realized it was too late for Priscilla. She'd surpassed her yoki limit and could never regain her humanity now. She was moments away from being an Awakened Being herself.

The foolish girl seemed to finally realize she'd gone too far. The sword dropped from her hand as she fell to her hands and knees, her body continuing to distort from excess yoki.

With tears streaming form her red-gold eyes and mingling with the drool coming from her fanged maw she begged Teresa to help her.

Before the renegade number one could reply, the unknown warrior made her move. She covered the distance to the doomed young woman in an eye blink and seized her by the shoulders.

"Synchronize your yoki with mine!" She demanded in a commanding tone completely at odds with everything Elena had heard from her up until then.

The desperate number two struggled to obey as yoki writhed and flared around the two women.

Ilena noticed that as focused as the unknown warrior seemed to be on Priscilla's struggle, she had at the same time she seized her, stepped on the girl's dropped sword and kicked it out of reach with a good deal more vehemence than a simple precautionary measure seemed to warrant.

Ilena felt her eyes widen in amazement as a heart beat later a drained and confused, but human Priscilla sprawled where moments before had crouched a twisted monstrosity.

"That's impossible!" Noel gasped. "Once you go past your limit there's no turning back!"

The strangely familiar warrior answered in an almost whimsical tone, "Then either you're mistaken, or you're hallucinating."

There was a moment of stunned silence.

"It seems unlikely that so many of us would share a hallucination," Teresa observed drily. "So I have to ask: What happed to her just now stranger?"

Given the bizarre situation, Ilena had no problem letting her former superior and current target speak for her.

Standing and facing Teresa squarely, the unnamed warrior's face visibly lost animation, becoming as cold and distant as that of a statue.

"It is possible to retain your humanity even after surpassing your yoki limit. Not easy, but possible. It is significantly easier to revert with the help of another warrior who is able to use yoki manipulation techniques."

"I have never heard of such a technique. Who are you?" Teresa asked, her eyes sweeping over the unknown warrior's face and then gazing over at the face of the little girl she was traveling with.

Ilena realized with some startlement that, barring the differences of age and the coloration common to all half bred warriors, the two faces were identical. The degree of similarity was far too great to be coincidental. The warrior with the strangely familiar aura had to be closely related to that girl.

"It is a technique related to the one you use to predict your enemies' movements. If, rather than killing some bandits and declining to be put to death for it, you had actively attacked the Organization you would have discovered that number ten is very familiar with the technique indeed. Of all the Organization's warriors, only number ten is given anti-warrior training."

"Are you saying that the Organization is hiding this information? Why would they do that?" Ilena found herself demanding.

The stranger turned away from Teresa to answer: "I doubt that the Organization is aware that the technique can be used in such a way. They are aware that it is most effective in battle if it is unsuspected. Assuming the user isn't massively more powerful than the target, it is best used to redirect the targets movements. For example..."

Sophia's had been reaching up to sweep the hair back from her face when her hand suddenly stopped and pinched the end of her nose between her finger and thumb.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, snatching her hand away from her face. In embarrassed anger her hand started for her sword only to stop as a wary look came over her.

"If you are prepared for the possibility, you can overpower the attempted redirection. If, on the other hand, you had never imagined such a thing was possible and in the middle of a fight you suddenly found yourself unable to block..." the warrior trailed of suggestively.

It was an uncomfortable thought for Ilena. If she'd still had the notions of honorable combat that Priscilla had, she might have called such a technique cheating.

"It can also be used to enhance another warrior's healing, although defender-types tend to be better at using it that way."

"That is interesting," Teresa admitted. "But you still haven't told me who you are. Are you here for the girl?" she asked in a carefully neutral tone.

The little girl looked panicked at the idea, but remained silent.

Raki broke his silence with a big grin at that point. "I think that's an absolutely fascinating idea, if a little confusing around dinner time."

The leather clad warrior gave him a quelling look before explaining, "My name is also Clare. I am not a warrior of the current generation. Some years ago I learned things about the Organization that made me profoundly unhappy. If you want details, I'm going to need a promise from everyone here not to attack each other, or me, for the rest of the day."

She coldly addressed the still dazed Priscilla, who hadn't even stood up yet.

"Do you think you can do that?"

Priscilla swallowed, visibly gathering her wits before answering. "I...Yes. I owe you ...more than my life. I'll do whatever you say."

Ilena saw the strangest look pass over the warrior's, Clare's, face at those words before returning to it's customary blankness.

When Priscilla stood up, her tattered uniform gave way, leaving her bare to the waist. As horrific as the sight was, it was nothing Ilena hadn't seen before. All warriors bore the same marks. She was morbidly curious about the the human male's reaction, however.

With no signs of disgust or even embarrassment, Raki calmly removed his cloak and handed it to Priscilla.

"Here you go. I know you can't catch cold or anything, but you should still cover up."

His friendly concern for a woman he couldn't have met before, who he'd just seen come a hair's breadth from becoming a cannibalistic monster, reminded Ilena bizarrely of a brother's solicitude. Combined with the odd things she'd overheard him saying, Ilena was forced to conclude this man was entirely lacking self-preservation instincts. Or possibly was completely insane and unable to perceive the world around him accurately.

"Does anyone have a problem with that? Appearances to the contrary, I don't like making long speeches or repeating myself, so if you're not willing to hear me out, say so now."

Raising an eyebrow at the confrontational tone this Clare had taken Ilena stated, "I don't think we have any business that can't wait till tomorrow. Right?"

The prospect of getting some answers out of this likely insane deserter (who's aura felt like Teresa's, face looked like the little girl who shared her name, and arm apparently belonged to Ilena herself despite the fact that she wasn't missing one) was far more attractive than being beaten by Teresa a second time today.

Noel and Sophia were still too shocked to offer objections, and Teresa of the Faint Smile was living up to her name.

"Alright then. We have a camp on the other side of those rocks. While we're walking let me ask you this: Have you ever wondered where yoma come from?"

* * *

><p><strong>*Author's Note*<strong>

* * *

><p><em>If you aren't familiar with <em>Claymore,_ you probably aren't going to know what's going on in this story. If you are familiar with _Claymore_ and you still don't know what's going on, then I screwed up somewhere. This is a time travel fic in case that wasn't obvious. I'll leave the explanation of how and why Clare and Raki time traveled for if and when I continue this story. Which won't be anytime soon if it happens at all. I almost named this _John Jacob Jinglehiemer Schmidt_**.** I decided at the last moment that most people wouldn't get the joke and that it was more of a side issue to the main thrust of the story anyway. If it can be said to have a main thrust._

_1/10/12 _

_I corrected that little problem with Ilena's name. (I think. I hope.)_

_This first part pretty much wrote itself. The next bit, not so much. I wouldn't say it's kicking my ass, but it is definately putting up a great struggle. That being said, I still think I can have the next part out by the end of the month. _


	2. Chapter 2

"What kind of question was that?" Noel asked scornfully. "Yoma have always been here. It's like asking where people come from."

The short-tempered short haired warrior was taking her ease at the stranger's camp using her sword as a back rest. The other warriors, with the exception of Priscilla, had likewise thrust their swords into the ground for use as chairs.

It was a measure of Priscilla's profound state of shock that she hadn't yet retrieved her own blade. Ilena wasn't comfortable with her having a sword near to hand anyway, given her recent mental breakdown. Most likely that was why no one else had pointed out the absence either.

The young warrior wouldn't have been able to sheath it in anything other than the earth since her armor had been destroyed in her battle with Teresa.

_In more than one sense._

Priscilla sat on the stony ground, curled up in the big human's cloak while he dug thorough his pack for an extra shirt. She seemed lost in her thoughts again, but Ilena noticed she was sitting as far from Teresa as possible without actually leaving the campsite. With her youthful features and short cap of curly hair she resembled a woeful toddler wrapped in a blanket.

"While I have some idea where babies come from, I'm not so clear about yoma," Clare responded drily. "Perhaps you could enlighten me?"

She had positioned herself between Teresa and the other warriors, likely to deter further conflict. Ilena reflected that Clare was either greatly confident in her own abilities or foolishly arrogant to surround herself with potential enemies. It was too difficult to gauge the enigmatic warrior's strength to allow her to judge which it was.

The other Clare, the little girl, sat huddled against a rock. She kept Teresa between her and the warrior who bore both her name and, more oddly, her face. Despite her unease she seemed fiercely interested in the conversation. Likely she believed Teresa could protect her from whatever might happen.

_A not unreasonable thing to believe, _Ilena acknowledged, considering how handily the rogue number one had defeated her group.

Noel spluttered angrily, to the visible amusement of her rival Sophia. Ilena, sitting between the two, interrupted before the situation could escalate.

"Our purpose as warriors of the Organization is to kill yoma, not to study them. We are only given the information we need to fufill our purpose."

"Knowing the reproductive habits of yoma would certainly be helpful in exterminating them," Clare pointed out expressionlessly. "But it isn't the Organization's policy to exterminate the yoma, is it?"

"Hardly," Teresa of the Faint Smile agreed. "Warriors are assigned to kill yoma only when a town agrees to pay the Organization. It would destroy the Organization's finances if we eliminated the yoma completely."

Ilena found it odd to hear such cynical words spoken so serenely, but couldn't truly disagree with them. Judging by the looks on their faces Noel and Sophia also wished they could argue, but they knew the truth of Teresa's words by now.

Ilena spared a glance for the idealistic Priscilla, but she seemed not to have been listening as she tried on the shirt Raki brought her. It was dark brown and far too large but she seemed to find it preferable to wandering around in just a cloak.

"Here's another question for you," Clare said, tapping the sword she reclined against with a knuckle. "Have you ever seen one of these break?"

"You seem to be asking us a great many questions," Sophia observed with a faint air of impatience impinging on her customary attitude of pleasantly amused calm. "I was under the impression you were going to answer some of ours instead. Was I mistaken?"

"Humor me for a moment, I'm getting to it," Clare assured her. "So? Have any of you seen one of these swords broken? Perhaps in a battle with an Awakened Being?"

"Never," Ilena admitted.

"An ordinary sword will kill ordinary yoma just as well. As... cost conscious as the Organizations' other policies seem, isn't it odd that they provide us with weapons that are better than we need?"

"I've never had any problems with this," Raki added cheerfully from where he was breaking dry brush down into something useful for firewood. He gave the hilt of his broadsword a possessive pat.

Ilena gave the claim a moment's consideration. The man did move well and was certainly very strong for a human given his sheer size. If he had a way to identify them there was no particular reason he couldn't kill yoma. It was their ability to identify the shape shifters that made the Organization's warriors indispensible.

_However_... "What is sufficient against yoma is lacking against Awakened Beings. Why else do we hunt them in groups of four when even the weakest warrior faces yoma alone?" Ilena asked.

"True," Clare acknowledged. "These greatswords are clearly designed with something more like an Awakened Being than a yoma in mind. Still, given their durability, it would be possible for the Organization to reuse them. The custom of using a warrior's sword as her grave marker seems unusually sentimental for the Organization. They are presumably quite expensive. How expensive I couldn't say since I haven't been able to find out what they're made out of or where they're made.

"But I see you're getting impatient. Alright, What do you want to know?"

Surprisingly, the first question came from Teresa.

"Do you have a nickname? It could get awkward calling you both Clare," she observed with her signature expression. The little girl peer over at her presumed relative curiously.

"No, I'm afraid not," the leather clad warrior admitted.

"That's not true," Raki contradicted her. "I've heard her friends call her 'Clare of Many Souls' sometimes."

The blank faced warrior blinked in surprise,"I've never heard that."

"Well they don't say it when you're around. I've also heard them call you 'that damn brat' when you aren't around, if you'd prefer to use that as a nickname instead," he suggested with a grin.

Her lips twitched before she fixed him with a level look. "I don't think 'Many Souls' would be convenient in conversation. And if you start calling me 'brat' you're likely to wake up some morning with one of your eyebrows missing."

"Now, now, what kind of example are you setting saying things like that big sis?" he asked, gesturing in the little girl's direction with a wider smile. "You're just proving you earned the nickname, speaking that way."

Her hand rose up to her sword hilt in a decidedly threatening manner. "You know little brother, now that I think about it, you don't actually have to be asleep for me to shave off your eyebrow."

Ilena ignored the byplay for the moment. The things she had heard these two saying earlier implied that there were a sizable number of deserters. (She was shelving the matter of an Awakened Being stronger than the Creatures of the Abyss.) This was something she'd never even heard whispers of before.

Three possibilities came to mind.

The first was that there were no other deserters. Clare was implying that she had comrades to discourage warriors loyal to the Organization from attacking her. Or perhaps to encourage warriors _disloyal_ to the Organization to join her.

The second possibility was that the Organization kept the existence of the deserters a secret because for some reason they were unable or unwilling to destroy them. If that were the case than reporting this to the Organization wouldn't necessarily be a wise move.

The third possibility was that the Organization was unaware of the deserters. For that to be the true than every warrior who learned of them must have been converted to their cause or silenced.

Ilena didn't have enough information to narrow down the possibilities any further.

"'Little brother?'" Sophia asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Not by blood, no," Raki explained with a slightly sad smile. "My older brother was replaced by a yoma and Clare killed it. I was about the same age as little sister there. After my village threw me out, she took care of me.

"I signed on as her personal cook, which since you hybrids eat maybe once a week, was really strenuous work."

"Yeah, this is all real interesting," Noel interjected. "But what I want to know is-"

"Why did you leave the Organization Miss Clare?" Priscilla asked in a wounded voice. "How could you betray them like that?"

Ilena felt herself tense slightly as her nominal superior joined the conversation at last. Her instability made the potentially volatile situation even worse.

Clare's expression was tinged with bitter amusement. "How could I betray them? From my perspective they betrayed me first.

"The way the Organization treats it's warriors has doubtless led many to consider desertion... or revenge. The only thing that restrains many is the belief that, however evil it no doubt is, the Organization is a necessary evil. Without it humans would be completely at the mercy of the yoma.

"We are used as expendable assets and when we die the Organization replaces us without a trace of grief. That kind of indifference is harsh, but endurable. While I was willing to obey knowing that the Organization had no particular interest in if I lived or died, I was not willing to do so when they started going out of their way to have me killed."

Priscilla's face twisted in distress. "Of course it's dangerous when we're sent to kill yoma Miss Clare, but the Organization doesn't want us to die!"

"If for no other reason than the bother of training a new girl," Teresa agreed. "Unless you broke the rules?"

"No," Clare stated. "While I certainly don't fault you for killing those bandits, especially after they'd massacred a town, I have never killed a human myself. I will only willingly kill yoma and Awakened Beings."

_That statement doesn't preclude her from killing humans or fellow warriors, it simply indicates she'd do it reluctantly_, Ilena noted.

Clare continued to speak.

"From the moment I became a warrior I was focused on vengeance. My purpose for living was to kill a certain one-horned Awakened Being. All of my training was aimed towards that goal. Partly because I was so focused on that particular opponent, my general skills suffered and I was badly wounded in battle with a yoma. I killed it but surpassed my limit in the process.

"I was in a city and knew that if I Awakened I would kill people who, unique to my experience had expressed gratitude to me. I fought my Awakening with every fiber of my being and was considerably surprised when I succeeded in returning to human form."

Ilena found this dry recitation of events more convincing than an emotional outburst. She recognized that Clare had more traits in common with her than the still unexplained similarities in the their sword arms. She noted that Priscilla seemed to perceive some form of a rebuke in Clare's recitation. A criticism for needing someone else to draw her back from the edge perhaps?

"While I always completed my assignments I viewed them mostly as training for my true goal and made no great show of loyalty to the Organization.

"I was assigned to hunt an Awakened Being. I was the first to arrive and rather than wait for the rest of the team I proceeded to the designated town alone. Fortunately for me there was no Awakened Being. The town was being preyed upon by a small group of yoma and I killed the majority of them before the other warriors arrived. My intended leader was disgusted by, and promised to report my actions. I had never faced one of the Awakened and had little idea of how costly my disobedience could have been."

"It probably would have involved being torn limb from limb," Raki suggested brightly, scooping up a piece of kindling. He somehow managed to make the desiccated plant produce a crackle gruesomely similar to the sound of splintering bone.

Clare regarded him repressively for a moment before speaking again.

"Soon afterwards I was assigned to another Awakened Being hunt. I was the last to arrive and the other members of my group were less than impressed by my low rank."

"And what was that rank?" Sophia asked with what someone unfamiliar with her might take as polite interest.

"I was number forty-seven," Clare answered evenly.

"Damn," Noel laughed. "Lowest of the low! Talk about dead weight. I've never heard of anyone lower than a thirty being taken on a hunt. Maybe they were trying to get you all killed!"

Ilena saw Clare's mouth twitch slightly at this. Strangely, it didn't seem as if she was insulted by the dismissive statement.

"And what were the ranks of the rest of your team?" Teresa inquired calmly.

Clare's face lost what expression it had before answering. Ilena wondered what reaction to the rogue the strange warrior was trying to hide.

"They were numbers twenty-two, fifteen, and six."

Seeing Priscilla's confused anger at Noel, Ilena explained. "It is policy that the leader of any Awakened Being hunt be of single digit rank. The other three may be of any rank, although generally only experienced warriors are assigned."

Noel's derisive observation wasn't entirely unjustified. It was extremely odd to assign such a low ranking warrior to a hunt. Possibly the Awakened wasn't particularly strong and it was hoped that the experience would improve Clare's discipline. Perhaps there was a shortage of personnel at the time. Or possibly...

"Any further questions, or may I continue?" Clare asked with a note of irritation. Hearing none, she resumed.

"We were ambushed on the way by a male Awakened Being who seemed to be expecting us. Our leader informed us that the Organization had once made male hybrid warriors but had discontinued the practice because they Awakened too quickly.

"The Awakened complimented her on her knowledge, but said that she was mistaken on one point." She paused for a moment, then added without emphasis, "He never explained what he meant by that. He admitted he 'd been one of those male warriors and that he killed all those sent to him.

"Over the course of the battle I discovered that my teammates all possessed unusual abilities and that my own training had born fruit, although my technique still needed a great deal of work.

"Our leader questioned us afterwards. As it happened all of us had come close to Awakening in the past, including her. We were also all regarded as troublemakers by the Organization for one reason or another. She asked if we thought it was odd that a group of troublesome warriors was given inaccurate information and sent to fight a powerful male Awakened Being.

"The obvious implication was that we hadn't been intended to return from the hunt."

"No! The Organization would never do that! You would take the word of a filthy yoma that-" Priscilla burst out furiously.

Ilena was surprised that a single sharp hand gesture from Clare silenced her. She didn't let the surprise show on her face, particularly her surprise that the idealistic Priscilla had immediately understood the implications of the phrase 'sent to him.'

"No, I didn't take it for granted at that point that the Organization was out to kill us. Our leader was quick to point out herself that all she had was supposition and not real proof. She felt that we should keep our guard up anyway. She advised us to try to change the Organization's perception of us as troublemakers and keep our near Awakenings to ourselves.

"She also told us, in her opinion, that the experience had strengthened us to the point that we were at the single digit level. That being so, in the worst case scenario, most of our comrades weren't a really threat. She described to us the ones who were dangerous, telling us to avoid number four especially.

"I followed her advice and did my best to appear loyal and obedient. My handler commented favorably on the change in my attitude and assigned me to another Awakened Being hunt. When I arrived at the designated meeting place I found that only two of us had been assigned. My new leader was the number four I had been warned against."

"And what exactly was so dangerous about this number four?" Noel asked. Her expression conveyed no great respect for the position.

_Perhaps she has forgotten that number four is no longer Sophia's rank, but her own, _Ilena thought absently as Clare turned to answer.

"This number four was so obsessed with killing Awakened Beings that she was willing to goad her comrades into Awakening for the chance to sate her bloodlust. She cut off my legs before our target arrived and remarked on how fortunate she was to be able to kill two Awakened Beings in one day."

Priscilla was plainly rendered speechless with horror at the thought of such insane treachery and Noel and Sophia murmured their own disgust.

Ilena and Teresa exchanged glances that held distaste, but no disbelief. Ilena had never heard of such a focus on Awakened Beings but, remembering the stories she'd heard whispered about a former number one called Roxanne of Love and Hate, she was aware that equally twisted warriors had existed.

"She killed the Awakened Being by herself after I reattached my legs and ran for my life. She soon caught up with me, and my attempt to fake my death by sacrificing my right arm was unsuccessful. If not for the intervention of a deserter I would have died then and there. The deserter, a former number two, disabled my attacker and brought me to her home. As it turned out we had mutual acquaintances, including the one horned Awakened Being."

_It is interesting that since she began talking to us instead of her companion, she has ceased to use the names of the warriors she claims to know, _Ilena suddenly thought. _Is it because she is protecting their identities in case we report her words to the Organization, or because they don't exist and she doesn't want us to be able to test her?_

The nameless deserter's intervention wasn't unlike Clare's own actions. If there truly was an organization of deserters, then it might be their policy to send only a single warrior to potential recruits. Sending only one would be a reasonable precaution since, even if detected, one deserter wouldn't greatly concern the Organization.

However, if they had sent Clare to recruit someone so prominent as Teresa of the Faint Smile, then it might indicate that they were almost ready to move against the Organization. The human's remark about how getting Priscilla on their side would make things easier could be taken as proof of this. Priscilla and Teresa working together would be practically unstoppable, especially if her near Awakening had made Priscilla even stronger.

Ilena put her speculations aside to listen to Clare again.

"She attempted to train me in her technique, but I lacked the necessary self-discipline to master them. She became certain that I could not defeat my enemy as I was, so she gave me her sword arm. She informed me that she had no need of it since she'd left the fighting behind her. I promised to return it to her after the one horned Awakened was dead."

Clare glanced at Ilena, and though her face didn't change, something in her posture spoke to Ilena of sorrow... or perhaps shame.

"I was unable to keep my promise. She had remained hidden by suppressing her yoki for years on end, until it became undetectable. Unfortunately she'd had to release it to train me. By the time I returned, years later, she was long dead."

Clare took a slightly deeper than usual breath and straightened her shoulders minutely before continuing.

"When my next assignment was as part of an Awakened Being hunt deep in the territory of one of the Creatures of the Abyss, I was completely convinced that the Organization was trying to dispose of me. Using half doses of yoki suppression pills, I and some of my comrades were able to successfully fake our deaths."

She looked into Priscilla's eyes and said, "That is how I deserted from the Organization and why I don't regard it as a betrayal."

Priscilla's expression was full of confusion and unhappiness, but she didn't seem likely to go berserk again. If the deserter could broaden Priscilla's black and white view of the world it would be all to the good, but it was unlikely that she would be able to turn her against the Organization, so Ilena largely dismissed the girl from her thoughts.

"An interesting story," Sophia remarked with the same pleasant tone that she used at her most cutting. "But not one that's easy to verify. In fact, I noticed only one part of it that could be tested immediately."

"Yeah," Noel said, following her rival's thoughts effortlessly. "We could check if she really is at the single digit level."

Ilena watched her subordinates flow to their feet without commenting.

"No!" Priscilla protested. "We promised not to fight for the rest of the day!"

"We promised not to try to kill each other," Sophia contradicted her. "We aren't speaking of a battle to the death here, merely a sparring match to test our hostess's honesty."

"I should be the one to check her out. Seeing her fight someone with all the grace of a gorilla wouldn't prove anything," Noel remarked snidely.

"Our aim is to test her strength, not her ability to dance with a hopping little monkey-"

"There's no need to argue," Clare interrupted the rivals. In a single smooth motion she flipped to her feet behind her sword, then leapt a dozen yards backwards with it in her hand. "If it will get this over with any faster, I'm perfectly willing to take you both on at the same time."

She stood straight and tall, her distinctive dark leathers seeming to drink in the fading sunlight. She held her sword over her shoulder, positioned as if it were sheathed, although it wasn't actually touching her sling.

"Do they call you "Many Souls' because you hear voices in your head or something?" Noel demanded incredulously.

"The only thing I hear right now is my stomach growling. Can we get on with this? We half-Awakened have to eat more often than other warriors," Clare said deadpan.

"Have fun! I should have dinner ready by the time you're finished," Raki told them as he began adding this to the pot suspended over his cook fire.

"This should be interesting," Teresa remarked, echoing Ilena's own thoughts.

* * *

><p><strong>*Author's Note*<strong>

* * *

><p><em>With the passing of my last ink cartridge, my effectively antique printer has become an awkward paperweight. This chapter may not seem very long to you, dear reader, but if you had to type it up, recopy it long hand and then type it again for posting, you might be of a different opinion.<em>

_But enough of my whining. At least this way I got plenty of chances for last minute editing._

_I have to give special thanks to _Calamity Cordite_ and _Dany le fou_. Without their encouragement and tolerance for my inane questions and semi-coherent babbling I probably wouldn't have updated this. So if you hate it, blame them. This is what happens when people encourage me._

_Speaking of, I would love to have a beta reader to blame things... I mean, to help me improve my writing. I'm not really objective about my work, so an outside viewpoint would be much appreciated. If anyone is interested, PM me._

_Having read these two chapters back to back, I've noticed that this one seems a lot darker than the first one. This is probobly because I recapped the series basicly. I think I've got the big chunks of nessesary exposition out of the way, but I can't promise that. Sorry. _


	3. Chapter 3

Noel sprang to the attack, flipping over the deserter and striking her while inverted in mid air. The dark clad deserter didn't seem to move, making it look as if "Stormwind" Noel's blows were rebounding off empty air. Noel continued her attack, spinning, leaping, and cartwheeling around her opponent in the unusually swift and acrobatic style that gave her her nickname.

No matter what unconventional angle Noel struck from, her sword was blocked by the deserter. In fact, the deserter didn't so much as take a step or turn her head during the flurry. She obviously wasn't using her eyes to track Noel.

Sophia struck without warning, a massive overhand strike that, while lacking the overwhelming power her yoki could give it, was more than enough to split an ox in half.

Lengthwise.

It connected with nothing but the stony ground. Without attempting to meet the blow the deserter took a step back and avoided the attack by less than an inch.

As Noel and Sophia began to attack simultaneously the battle took on a peculiar rhythm. The deserter would stop all Noel's blows without stirring a step and dodge all of Sophia's blows, never crossing swords with her. The bright belling of blade on blade was constantly underscored by the duller sound of blade on rock.

_It's fortunate that our swords are almost impossible to damage_, Ilena though. _Otherwise Sophia would need weeks to polish the nicks out._

Of course Sophia's style, which more than any other warrior's relied on the superhuman strength of her hybrid body, wouldn't have been practical without an extraordinarily durable sword.

"Stop playing around, damn you!" Noel demanded. "Fight back already!"

"You asked for proof of my skill so I started with defense," Clare answered nonchalantly. "Now I'll show you my offense."

For a moment it seemed as if Clare was simply standing still again as an inexplicable wind surged up around her. Then she sprang to meet her opponents and that wind became a storm of sound.

Sophia was struck at will, no attempt of here to dodge or block was successful. Not only could she not stop Clare's sword, she couldn't even touch it. Ilena believed that the deserter was watching for Sophia's realization of how outclassed she was, for when the faint expression of dismay showed on the current Number Five's face Clare instantly shifted her focus to Noel.

Noel was more successful in her defensive attempts. Blocking and dodging acrobatically she was able to avoid almost half the strikes that came her way, but it was obvious that her famed speed was no match for the incredible swiftness of the deserter's sword arm.

"Miss Ilena is that...?"Priscilla trailed off.

"No," Teresa answered serenely "When Ilena uses her Quick Sword she concentrates so much yoki into her sword arm that, for all intents and purposes, it Awakens. The technique we are witnessing uses no yoki whatsoever."

"It is not as fast or as powerful as my technique," Ilena observed.

_However..._

"She's certainly proved she's at the single digit level," Teresa commented.

Clare wasn't striking at Noel or Sophia with her extraordinary barrage of attacks. She was striking at the bindings of their armor.

Noel's fauld slipped off her hips in mid leap, followed in short order by her right bracer and left greave. When Sophia attempted to capitalize on the way Clare was focusing on her rival again she lost her pauldrons.

Clare's techniques were based on using little to no yoki so, in a sparring situation where everyone held back their power, she had an enormous advantage over more conventional warriors.

This had become less a sparring match than a farce. With another of those blurring attack barrages Clare flicked Noel's pauldron assembly over her head in one piece without so much as nicking her.

She had yet to draw blood from either of her opponents.

The precision needed for these childish tricks was well beyond what Ilena knew of her own capability. And while the deserter's seemingly casual handling of her opponents in this situation wasn't proof that she would overmatch them in a genuine battle, it did prove her claim.

She was definitely in the single digit class.

"Do you believe the rest of her words will prove true?" Ilena asked Teresa.

The rogue Number One gave the matter some thought before saying, "I think that what she has said is true. I also think that she is carefully_ not_ saying a great many things."

Noel's eyes went from silver to slit-pupiled gold as she began to lose her temper. She crouched to charge at Clare, but the extra pressure caused the weakened bindings of her remaining greave to come partly free and trip her before she took more than a step. Her natural grace prevented her from doing more than stumble slightly as her yoki began to rise again at this fresh embarrassment.

Ilena glanced at her in sudden concern but Noel stopped and suppressed her yoki with a rueful laugh.

"Alright, you proved your point damn it," Noel admitted. She started to sheath her blade but realized the impossibility of that before completing the motion. She shook her head. "This is not my day."

"My amusement at seeing you beaten twice in the course of a few hours is somewhat lessened by my own defeats," Sophia stated with a slightly conciliatory air.

Noel flashed her rival an acknowledging grin before asking the deserter, "What the hell do you call that technique anyway?"

"It's called the Wind Cutter," the deserter answered, returning her sword to it's sling. She walked nonchalantly back to the campsite, leaving her former opponents to gather up their armor and follow.

* * *

><p>One Week Later<p>

* * *

><p><em>How did they talk us into this?<em> Ilena wondered to herself, and not for the first time.

In hooded cloaks the six warrior followed after the man and the little girl. It was nearing midday, well after the morning attempt to kill Teresa and shortly before they would stop for lunch.

_I'm actually looking forward to it_, she thought with rueful wonder.

The whole execution team was still limping and the demands of constant healing gave the four of them something resembling an appetite.

Clare didn't interfere with the daily attacks since Teresa insisted, but she kept her eyes locked on Priscilla every battle. And today, as usual, the certainty that her hero would take her head off if she lost control for a heartbeat had prevented Priscilla from accessing more than fifty percent of her yoki.

All in all, Ilena had to acknowledge that as a good thing. Priscilla was learning at a rapid pace, not just self discipline, but also battle skill. The gap between her and Teresa was closing steadily.

Little Sister stumbled forward as she slipped on a loose rock. Before she could even gasp Teresa had caught her and set her back on her feet.

"Careful silly girl. You don't want to tear your new clothes do you?" Teresa teased with and indulgent warmth in her voice that Ilena had never heard from any warrior.

She wiggled the girl's nose with a gentle forefinger.

Little Sister giggled.

Ilena caught a flash of jealousy crossing Priscilla's face at the maternal gesture, and oddly enough a similar expression from Clare.

Clare had never approached the girl and given her perpetually forbidding expression, the girl had never approached her either, but the resemblance between them was obvious and undeniable. It would be pushing the bounds of chance if they_ weren't_ related. There was doubtless a story there, but Ilena concluded that it was one that was none of her business.

More relevantly it was hard for Priscilla to continue to view Teresa as a "filthy murderer" after seeing her with the child day after day. Which wasn't to say Priscilla didn't try, simply that it was a losing battle.

_It's a race to see if Priscilla's skill reaches the critical level before her blind faith in the Organization drops below it_, Ilena hypothesized.

A dangerous gamble Clare and Raki were taking, but one that had the potential to pay off phenomenally.

Speaking of dangerous gambles the execution team was taking an insane one of their own. The chance that the Organization would accept their excuses for traveling with two rogue warriors without consequences was only slightly greater than the chance that Riful of the West would be reinstated as Number One in Teresa's place.

The only way they would be able to avoid being labeled deserters themselves was if they brought back the heads of Teresa and Clare.

Reflecting on "big sister's" demonstration Ilena was doubtful of the team's ability to take either one of them at the moment, much less both together.

Ilena had not been paying attention to the idly chatter between Raki and Little Sister, but she took interest when she saw the girl glance slyly at Sophia and Noel and ask him brightly, "Who do you think is the prettiest?"

Ilena saw immediately that she wasn't the only one to take an interest in the conversation at that point. Given that little glance she knew that it wasn't the innocent girlish question it appeared on the surface. But who was the target? Raki or...

He gave a bark of nervous laughter. "Well, Little Sister, that kind of a hard question for a man to answer when he is surrounded by such lovely ladies. A field of lovely, if heavily thorned, flowers so to speak."

The girl was walking backwards now so that she could theoretically look at Raki, but she kept shooting little looks at Noel and Sophia.

_Ah._

So she was striking at the most obvious crack in the execution team's cohesion. A childishly direct tactic, but unfortunately...

"Well?" Sophia asked him with a thread of warmth in her voice. "You must have some opinion."

... it was a tactic that could work.

Noel switched between smiling at him and glaring at her rival.

"...There's a funny looking squirrel!" Raki exclaimed, pointing off to the left of the trail. The moment Little Sister glanced around to see what he was talking about, he burst into an extremely quick, but completely silent run.

By the time she looked back he was thirty yards away and still running.

"Hey!"

Ilena couldn't suppress a snort at that, and Priscilla was startled into a giggle. Teresa's ever present smile could no longer be called faint and even Clare's eyes were shining with humor above her closed off expression.

However, given the look Noel and Sophia exchanged, that wouldn't be the end of the matter.

Ilena knew she'd have to keep an even closer eye on those two to make sure things didn't get out of hand if Little Sister was going to start stirring the pot. Not to mention the eye she had to keep on Priscilla to make sure she didn't lose her composure followed by her humanity and go after Teresa alone again.

And the eye she had to keep on Clare to make sure she didn't preemptively take Priscilla's head off for twitching in Teresa's direction.

The only one she didn't have to watch closely was her ostensible target.

_There is something deeply wrong about a situation when the person you can trust the most is the one you're trying to kill_, Ilena thought somewhat grumpily before returning to her dark ruminations.

Further conversation had revealed that the Wind Cutter wasn't Clare's technique, but that of a fallen comrade.

It made Ilena wonder about Clare's sobriquet "Many Souls." Perhaps it was a poetic way of saying that she carried the legacies of many warriors. As Noel's mocking alternative "Grave Robbing" Clare suggested.

Or perhaps it was more sinister.

Close study of her yoki signature made apparent how startlingly similar to Teresa's it was. If not for the opportunity to study them both at close range, Ilena wasn't certain she would have been able to tell them apart.

The closest similarities she'd seen before were warrior of the same generation who had been made into hybrids with the flesh and blood of the same yoma. However even the yoki signatures of those warriors still weren't as similar as those of Teresa and Clare who definitely weren't contemporaries.

Was it possible that Clare had the ability to synchronize her yoki with other warriors to a greater degree than she'd admitted?

If she could somehow mirror the yoki signature of another warrior so closely she could pass for them at a distance, then perhaps she could influence them far more subtly than she had implied. But if that was the case, who was to say that she was still a warrior at all? What if she was in fact an Awakened Being?

As insane as it sounded, the man, Raki, had spoken of traveling with Awakened Beings in the past. Even learning his sword technique from them.

There was a strange quality to Clare's yoki that reminded Ilena of that of an Awakened. A quality that Priscilla's yoki now shared.

Ilena had never heard of half-Awakening. What if Priscilla was in fact still Awakening, just at a slow rate? That could indicate that this mysterious conjectural cabal of deserters was really a cabal of Awakened Beings.

Rather than waiting to convince her to leave the Organization by reason, they could be waiting for Priscilla to be forced into leaving the Organization by her own expanding yoki.

And if that was the case there would soon be a fourth Creature of the Abyss. And possibly a fifth after that if Teresa was really being influenced.

Ilena had to discover the truth, and discover it quickly. At any cost.

* * *

><p><strong>*Author's Note*<strong>

* * *

><p><em>Wow, this is supposed to be funny isn't it? <em>_Whoops. _

_I'll work on that in the future. __This is also shorter than I'd like, and not a whole lot happened. Sorry about that, but hey? Something's better than nothing right? Maybe? Please?_

_And to the three or four people still expressing an interest in this story: Thanks. Seriously. _

_I'll try to do better in the future._


	4. Chapter 4

"With that hair, you look like a man yourself. It's obvious who's the most womanly," Sophia said in her calmly cutting way. She snuggled Raki's right arm more tightly to her chest.

"You're the one with arms like a man you big plodding cow! I've got graceful carriage and feminine style!" Noel shouted up into her longer haired rival's face from her matching position on Raki's left side.

He tried to lean back out of the catfight, but could make no progress. They'd linked their arms with his and were basically dragging him along at this point. Though he outweighed both of them together, he looked more like a condemned prisoner being escorted to the gallows than a man on a "romantic" stroll with the two warriors.

The grimly resigned look on his face did nothing to dispel that impression.

"Well, if that's even true it's the only feminine thing about you. You certainly don't have a feminine _figure_," was Sophia's snide answer as she ran her free hand suggestively over her chest. "Just another way you fall short of me."

Hearing Noel spluttering with outrage, Ilena knew it was time to step in.

Again.

"Noel, why don't you go scout ahead for a while?" Ilena interjected, making it clear with her tone that she wasn't making a request. "And Sophia, why don't you check our back-trail?"

The two paused to glare at each other before disengaging from Raki and head off to carry out their orders.

Noel glared at least. Sophia's expression was more of a smirk. While she probably couldn't win a physical battle with Noel, Sophia was a superior verbal combatant and had enjoyed a recent string of victories.

Raki waited until they were both out of earshot before sighing in relief "Thanks, Ilena. I've got to say, more and more I wish they'd just get it over with and fall into each other's hungry arms, you know?"

Ilena gave him a dry look. "Don't let them hear you say that," she cautioned him, while privately conceding he might be right. It wouldn't be the first time she'd seen two warriors use belligerence to cover mutual attraction.

"What, do you think I'm crazy? Anyway, I'm just trying to avoid a repeat of the bathing incident."

Ilena could acknowledge intellectually the awkwardness of his encounter. Warriors were mostly trained out of the nudity taboos of their childhoods. They weren't supposed to think of themselves as women, but rather as living weapons. That being said, they weren't particularly shy about anyone else's nudity either. One of Noel and Sophia's recent contests had involved seeing who could get Raki to react the most when they approached him while he was bathing in a stream. His unclad state was deemed useful in determining who was winning.

He'd managed to escape unnoticed during their argument over who would scrub his back first.

"I had no idea Clare had such a mean streak. I mean, if Little Sister was going to get them riled up, why did she have to point them at me in the process?"

"Mmh. Maybe she wanted to see if Big Sister would protect you?" Ilena had noticed that while Teresa seemed to find the competition over Raki quite amusing, the elder Clare did not.

Ilena hadn't much experience in judging male/female relationships, but she'd suspected for some time that Raki's feelings for his "Big Sister" went beyond the realm of brotherly affection. His attempt to put the relationship in that light was likely a case of settling for what he could get.

Judging from hints Ilena had observed, Clare might be more passionate than even Noel, but was certainly one of the least outwardly expressive warriors ever. Even if she reciprocated Raki's feelings she wouldn't be able to admit it to herself, let alone him.

Strangely, this bit of irrational internal conflict helped to reassure Ilena that Clare was still a warrior. Awakened Beings seemed to be fairly at peace with themselves, if murderous and cannibalistic towards everyone else. By contrast, Ilena had noticed that the most powerful, most highly ranking warriors were also the least stable.

For example, Priscilla could change in moments from a sweet, soft-spoken girl into a raving, slobbering lunatic.

Noel and Sophia would compete over anything, from a title to the attentions of a man neither was interested in, purely for the sake of beating the other.

Teresa had completely destroyed her life, sacrificing her position and becoming a hunted outlaw for the sake of an unrelated child she'd barely known.

Only Ilena herself was immune to this trend. She certainly wouldn't make such a major sacrifice for someone who was barely an acquaintance.

But while that inner conflict was a good sign, it wasn't proof in and of itself that Clare was still a warrior.

"Pfft. If you're gonna be like that, I'll go keep Priscilla company."

Ilena noted that Raki looked more depressed than offended by her probe. Lengthening his strides for a moment, he quickly caught up to the current Number Two.

It was just as well. Priscilla had been looking down for some time now. Ilena recognized the fact, but cheering up a depressed warrior wasn't really one of her skills. If an explanation or a scolding wouldn't do the job, she was lost for an alternative.

Raki on the other hand seemed to make a habit of befriending everyone he met. He'd spent hours speaking to each member of their little traveling group, especially Priscilla. Ilena admitted to herself that he knew the girl better than she did at this point. He always seemed to know just what to say to her like he'd known her for years.

As wary as she was of his motives, Ilena rather wished her own handler was more like Raki. Even Teresa had warmed up to him a bit.

"How's it going?" Raki asked, putting a friendly hand on Priscilla's shoulder. He wiggled her shoulder armor testingly. "Is my patch job giving you any trouble?"

She looked down shyly and shook her head.

"Come on. Tell me what's bothering you," he urged gently.

After a long pause Priscilla whispered, "It's just... I try so hard. Why does Miss Clare hate me?"

Raki put his arm across her shoulders and gave her a one-armed hug. "Oh, Priscilla. She doesn't hate you."

"Yes she does," Priscilla insisted quietly. She wasn't crying yet, but it didn't sound like that point was far off.

"It's not you," Raki told her. "You just remind her of someone who hurt her. She knows you aren't the same person, but she hasn't gotten over it yet."

Ilena's best theory up to this point had been that Clare's enmity toward Priscilla was a product of the fear of failure. If Clare had been sent to recruit Teresa then Priscilla was the only potential threat to the rogue Number One.

Or possibly she was making a show of dislike to drive Priscilla to try to win her approval as part of a psychological ploy to recruit the current Number Two.

A coincidence of appearance had never occurred to Ilena as a motive and seemed rather implausible.

"She never wants to talk to me," Priscilla went on as fi he hadn't said anything. "She's always looking at Miss Teresa. How do I make her look at me?"

Wryly Raki murmured, "If you find out, let me know."

"What?" Distracted by her own misery, Priscilla didn't seem to have heard him.

"Nothing. It's just going to take some time," he told her, leaving a comforting arm around her shoulders.

After walking in silence for a few minutes a less subdued Priscilla spoke again. "Miss Noel and Miss Sophia were going to wash your back because they want you to like them. Would it help if I washed Miss Clare?"

Raki froze in mid-step at the question. "If you wash Clare...?" he repeated to himself in a dreamy tone.

"Raki?" Priscilla asked the motionless man in concern. "Are you alright?"

"Hmm? Oh yeah," He answered brightly, falling back into step with the much shorter warrior. He wiped at his face. "I get these nose-bleeds sometimes, but it's nothing to worry about."

"So do you thing it would help if I tried to wash Miss Clare?"

His brief internal struggle was obvious to Ilena even though she couldn't see his face.

Regretfully he answered, "No, I'm afraid that wouldn't be a good idea at all." He patted the disappointed warrior on the back reassuringly.

"It's a nice thought," he told her with great sincerity in his voice, "a very nice thought, but we're going to have to wait till she warms up to you some more before I can see that happen."

He corrected himself immediately, "I mean, before you should try that."

A brilliantly obvious idea struck Ilena. A simple way to potentially answer her question about Clare had been staring her in the face.

* * *

><p>Convincing the others that they should all take a quick bath that evening while Raki was preparing dinner was easy enough. They'd set up camp for the night near a small waterfall with a pool that was practically ideal for the purpose. Noel's scouting had for once accomplished an end beyond getting her away from Sophia before she snapped.<p>

All the warriors drove their swords into the ground near the water's edge. It was more of a habit than a serous precaution, since none of them sensed any yoki other than their own within miles. As they began to strip out of their armor and clothing the only potential threat they faced was being peeked at while nude.

Since two of them would actively welcome that at this point and the others were totally indifferent to the prospect, it wasn't a matter that gave Ilena any concern. The only non-warrior, Little Sister, might be of a different frame of mind, but after the headaches that her meddling had caused Ilena could bear the thought of the girl's embarrassment with great equanimity.

Peeking was more or less Ilena's objective anyway. The reason she had proposed this little exercise was to verify that the elder Clare still bore the warrior's stigmata. Besides reverting to their human coloration, a warrior who Awakened lost that terrible unhealing wound.

Given the yoma's shape-shifting abilities, the presence of that most painful sign of the Organization's handiwork might not definitively prove that Clare hadn't Awakened, but it's absence would prove that she had.

Totally naked now, Ilena walked out into the water to the depth of her mid-thigh. Because of that same stigmata few warriors enjoyed submerging themselves. The stitches kept their bodies together, but little more and it was a distinctly uncomfortable feeling to have water sloshing inside your body cavity.

Noel and Sophia were cleaning up somewhere behind and to her left, staying close enough to trade verbal jabs at each other's appearance.

Teresa and Little Sister were on the far edge of the pool from the quarreling pair. Clare was the last one into the water, but with Priscilla only a few steps ahead, Ilena's view was completely blocked.

The very fact that Clare entered the water was nearly proof that she was still marked, but Ilena wanted to see that proof with her own eyes.

Clare did not oblige her.

Clare seemed determined to keep her back to Ilena when Priscilla ceased blocking her sight line. Without being truly obvious in her intentions there was no way for Ilena to do anything about that. All she could think to do was drag out her own ablutions as long as possible while waiting for an opportunity.

Since she had the longest hair of anyone present she was able to make that look plausible, but she was dimly aware of Noel and Sophia finishing up and slipping out the water before she'd gotten so much as a glimpse at Clare's front.

Surreptitiously watching as Teresa and Little Sister made their way to shore, Ilena came to the startling conclusion that Clare wasn't actually trying to hide her front from Ilena. She was trying to hide her _back_ from Teresa.

Ilena couldn't imagine why this would be so, since there was nothing remarkable about Clare's back beyond a number of scars probably inflicted before she became a hybrid. Given the way she angled her body to keep her front towards Teresa without ever looking in her direction, Ilena could think of no more reasonable explanation. Clare's washing motions were almost mechanical and certainly not the least bit provocative.

Nor had she shown signs of that kind of interest in Teresa anyway.

Ilena concluded that her best chance now was to proceed to the shore and position herself while dressing in such a way as to have a good view of Clare when she came out to get her own clothes.

She was halfway out the water when she heard masculine shouting coming from the camp.

Noel and Sophia were nowhere in sight but Ilena was exasperated to realize that their armor and clothing still was.

Out of the corner of her eye Ilena saw Clare streak past, snatching up her sword on the run and bounding straight for Raki's cries. Feeling the situation was likely much less serious than that, Ilena still ignored her own clothing and followed suit. While she wasn't going to cut the troublesome pair, if her suspicions were correct, she was seriously considering using the flat of her blade on them.

There were limits to the ridiculous behavior she was willing to tolerate, especially from her juniors.

She came up behind the suddenly motionless deserter, pausing when the were shoulder to shoulder to see what had so transfixed her.

Near the cook fire, and over his vociferous protests, a naked Noel and Sophia were trying to take off Raki's pants.

"...have to get the answer from your other head," she heard Noel saying.

Ilena jerked her eyes back to Clare as she heard the deserter's sword hilt creak in her now white knuckled hand. Judging from the vein visible pulsing on Clare's forehead Ilena considered it a strong possibility that she would have to step in to save her junior's lives.

When she heard a quiet question come from behind her, Ilena discovered that the situation was even worse than she'd thought.

"Are you picking on Raki?"

Ilena felt herself stop breathing as Priscilla slowly walked out into the clearing, sword in hand.

"Are you picking on Raki?" Priscilla asked again, her sword hand shivering in time with the quaver in her voice. A voice that was taking on an inhuman timbre.

_Oh damn._

She wasn't drawing dangerously on her yoki yet, but Ilena wasn't reassured. If her control broke, Priscilla could go from whispering to shrieking through fangs in a heartbeat.

For the first time in her life Ilena found herself wishing for an undetected yoma ambush. If a mob of the them burst into the clearing within the next few seconds the situation would be enormously improved. An attack by anything short of the Creatures of the Abyss would be a welcome distraction at this point.

Noel and Sophia weren't touching Raki anymore. Instead they were backing away from Priscilla, their progress slowed by the way they kept falling down and trying to hide behind each other. They were, perhaps unconsciously, doing their best to look as nonthreatening as possible.

Ilena's tension increased as Clare's posture went from expressing a barely restrained fury to a deadly cold resolve.

Amazingly, Raki looked completely calm when he walked out and stopped Priscilla with a gentle touch on her shoulder. "Priscilla. I'm okay."

As she blinked up at him and repressed her yoki, Ilena started breathing again. "Really?" the Organization's Number Two asked with the voice of a girl once more.

"Really," he assured her.

Then he stepped back and hurriedly started to refasten his pants. Once that was done, he seemed to hesitate before speaking again.

"There's just one thing..." he trailed off.

Now that the danger was past, the tension seemed to be catching up to him. His hands started trembling and his gaze was fixed away from all the warriors. His face twisted slightly with emotion while he appeared to be fighting to keep a calm expression.

"What's wrong Raki?" Priscilla asked him worriedly.

"Can you all please put some clothes on now?" he plaintively asked as his nose started to gush blood.

* * *

><p><strong>Author's Note<strong>

* * *

><p><em>I'm trying to find the right tone for this fic but I don't pretend I know what I'm doing yet. I was going for something sit-com ish this time. I hope it works okay.<em>

_I took much longer than I expected getting this update out, but I have a reasonable excuse: Bulbous boufont, blubber, macadamia... gazebo._

_Sorry if it isn't quite worth the wait._

_I've received plentiful confirmation that me and extemporaneous remarks don't go together. I know what I mean, but if I don't take at least a week to look things over , I don't know how someone who lives outside my head will interpret what I actually wrote. My foot has a distressing tendency to work itself into my mouth. Sometimes up to the knee._

_For what it's worth, if I have unintentionally given offence, I apologize._


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